Does anyone remember US media ever coming out so strongly for Black civil & human rights, against Confederate crap, in defense of civil rights protesters? Not in my lifetime. We’ve been put through hell with the Trump presidency which has emboldened fascists & white supremacists. But in their attempts to bring him down, media has provided some education about the realities of racist oppression in this country.
They are however bringing on historians & compromised Black commentators trying damn hard to distinguish between Confederate general & slave owner Robert E. Lee & revolutionary war general & slave owner George Washington. That’s part of the same historical tradition that glorifies Abraham Lincoln for his role in ending slavery but neglects his role in exterminating millions of American Indians. To uproot the foundations of racist oppression, we have to stop these historical equivocations, double-talk & deceits.
In the long run, American history will have to be rewritten & retaught so we understand what the hell really happened & how we got to be where we are. That work was begun by scholars in the Black, Latino, & American Indian history programs that came out of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. There’s a long road ahead in correcting the historical record but it begins with tearing down those ugly-assed monuments to the Confederacy & including the statues of Washington & Lincoln. We can respect them for their contributions without whitewashing their monstrous crimes against Blacks & Indians.